Did I over- or under-sell it?

[Darth Tom]

A mechanic which I thought was clearly dangerous and easily avoided kept being used because "it was just too cool and I wanted to know more", until the PC had an end-game condition.

A friend of mine wanted to try playing an RPG, and asked if I would be willing to do a one-shot, solo adventure. "No problem", I said, and set about preparing.

I took "The Marrow Mines" which I thought looked cool, and made a few tweaks to get it to fit a different system I'm already using elsewhere, but that part all worked ok so no dramas there.

The game starts, and the PC finds a guy who appears to be a miner wandering the countryside. There is a chance of getting coherent speech, but that fluffed and instead the PC had to reverse-track him back to the dungeon.

So the premise is that there is the skeleton of an impossibly large and ancient creature squished into the strata on this mountainside. I had it be a dragon from Jupiter, basically. The adventure takes place inside its bones, which is creepy as all get-out and I just loved that. The thing is, there's a madness at play here as well. I had it be that there are weird carvings on the inside of some of the bones, which the inhabitants make while in a trance. If those are investigated closely (you can see they are weird and you get a bad feeling about them from further away) then it's a dice roll for madness:

1D10
1-5 - nothing
6-10 - increasingly violent imagery of storms
11-15 - increasingly clear sense of being a vast creature soaring on the storm
16-19 - increasingly complete experience of being sucked through space and trapped in a tiny world, then crashing into the mountain range
20 - you awake in the village, with no memory of your experience. Apparently you were found wandering, mad. Game over.

Oh yeah, you notice how "game over" requires to roll a 20 on 1d10? You add +1 to the die roll each time so the effect becomes cumulative per PC.

So here's the problem: my PC finds these carvings, I give the description, and the guy decides (unprompted) to try touching the carving. I reiterate that this just feels worrying.

"I know, this is so cool!"

Touch. Vision.

"Whoa. I touch it again".

At this point I'm single facepalming, inside. Outside I'm deadpanning as hard as I can. More vision, this time it's a 9 or 10 level. Friend loves this.

"I touch it again!"

And again, and again, now I'm full Picard double facepalming, and maybe an eyebrow even raised outside, because he's gone through ten rolls, so this time is +10, and he rolls... 10.

His reaction was that this was the coolest game ever and I now have an extra player for my normal game, which is obviously great, but I can't help wondering whether I played it wrong. I went out of my way to write super-spooky visions and descriptions of the mad guy, the bone cave, and so on, thinking this would be a sign to back away. Instead, H.P. Lovecraft fan that he is (we both are), he was just too fascinated by the awful thing to look away.

What do you think? Did I err in my descriptions, or does that seem a reasonable outcome for the adventure?

[SirBellias]

Welp, having not read the adventure, your player enjoyed themselves enough to consider it a vast success, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Sometimes the dragon isn't slain. Sometimes the greater mysteries aren't found. This is still good, as long as the session/game was interesting and fun for all involved.

I'd probably describe some negative effect from staring too deeply into the madness if I wanted them to, y'know, not (headache that gets worse and worse, or something), but it sounds like you had an interesting bout of exposition that is the great word-filler lovecraftian horror needs.

So good on you. Perfectly reasonable.

[LankyOgre]

Two thoughts.
One, why is the Game Over. You awaken with no memory of a 24 hour period and people say they found you wandering mad sounds like the opening to another adventure.
Secondly, I could very easily see wondering if I am supposed to be getting some clue and touching it to try to figure out a story or message of some sort. Especially since you have no "mechanical" penalty until a 20 is rolled. Essentially its Fluff....Fluff....Fluff....Dead!. Unless there was an increasing amount of blacked out time, additional sensory experiences or some other effect, I might not connect that I'm getting closer to madness.

[Talyn]

Also, some people are willing to sacrifice their characters to get more of the 'story.' The insane visions are their own reward. See also: almost everyone who plays Fallen London or its spin-offs.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Don't know what you normally play but it sounds to me like that guy would be down for some Call of Cthulu.

[Kaptin Keen]

I mean, if your miner had been gripping his etchings of the runes or something - a way to draw a direct line from his madness to the deciphering of the runes - that might have avoided the PC going mad, but would have removed some of the mystery.

[Mordaedil]

I think I agree with some of the others, build on this, take it further.

As long as the players are having fun, you're doing it right.

[Darth Tom]

Really useful stuff guys, thanks very much. That's given me a lot to think on.

As for why it was game over - I honestly didn't think it would get to that point so just wrote the typical Lovecraft "and now the writer is in an asylum" type ending. Good call to tweak that.

[Magic Myrmidon]

This also sounds like a very "new player" thing to do. A lot of people new to dnd don't know where the boundaries (don't) exist. They'll do something dumb or weird because they don't think they'll be allowed to. Then, when they find out you can do whatever, they'll love it.

So it sounds like you did an awesome job introducing someone new to the game!

[icefractal]

TBH, I probably would have done the same thing, so I would say that you undersold the danger - although it sounds like a good time was had anyway, so not necessarily a problem.

Looking at the progression of results, the toucher gets an increasingly clear view of what appears to be the space dragon's memories. But nothing negative happens until the last step. The only way this reads as "bad" is if you consider a strange situation like viewing a dead dragon's memories to be inherently dangerous / something to be avoided. But someone who would voluntarily go into a dungeon made of said space dragon likely doesn't feel that way.

[Mordar]

I say undersold. Dramatically.

This also sounds like a very "new player" thing to do. A lot of people new to dnd don't know where the boundaries (don't) exist. They'll do something dumb or weird because they don't think they'll be allowed to. Then, when they find out you can do whatever, they'll love it.

So it sounds like you did an awesome job introducing someone new to the game!

Kind of because of this...but not quite sure I'd call it dumb or weird. New players don't have the set expectations of some regular gamers...so they aren't "gaming" the game, if you will. This screams out for investigation, and as has been mentioned, the lack of any growing danger (other than feeling icky) with growing experience *encourages* more examination, not discourages.

Frankly, had I a set up like this and the PC(s) didn't investigate I'd feel I was doing it wrong.

TBH, I probably would have done the same thing, so I would say that you undersold the danger - although it sounds like a good time was had anyway, so not necessarily a problem.

Looking at the progression of results, the toucher gets an increasingly clear view of what appears to be the space dragon's memories. But nothing negative happens until the last step. The only way this reads as "bad" is if you consider a strange situation like viewing a dead dragon's memories to be inherently dangerous / something to be avoided. But someone who would voluntarily go into a dungeon made of said space dragon likely doesn't feel that way.

Yup!

Don't know what you normally play but it sounds to me like that guy would be down for some Call of C'thulhu.

Only as long as the Keeper did it right...never punish for investigation, only for foolhardy investigation!

- M

[Slipperychicken]

This sounds a lot more fun than most 'normal' games where you just plow through losers and fight a big guy.

He had a great time exploring the content you wrote, so I'd chalk it up as a win.

[Reversefigure4]

Secondly, I could very easily see wondering if I am supposed to be getting some clue and touching it to try to figure out a story or message of some sort. Especially since you have no "mechanical" penalty until a 20 is rolled. Essentially its Fluff....Fluff....Fluff....Dead!. Unless there was an increasing amount of blacked out time, additional sensory experiences or some other effect, I might not connect that I'm getting closer to madness.

I'd probably do the same as the player. These appear to be beneficial - I'm touching them, rolling, and getting cool visions and useful information. I see my rolls is low, and I'm not getting all the information, so I want to keep going until I roll high.

Nosebleeds, increasing hit point damage, clearer flags of "You feel like you're losing your mind, and continuing to touch this could be dangerous for your sanity", would have made it clearer to me that "there are dangers associated with doing this, stop poking it".